[KMann]

Neil Peart's drumming is super-quick...LCD-R/SR-009 quickness. Hard to say which is quicker with only an hour on them

Personally I find LCD-5 quicker mostly because they can be direct driven out of my DAVE so they are able retain more of the speed and transparency.

For anyone thinking the previous LCD models were too heavy? Boy, oh boy will you be impressed with the 420g that these headphones come in at. One hour down and absolutely ZERO comfort issues. They seem to melt away on your head. They are smaller too and don't feel as big on my head:

When I got my first pre-production pair, by shear habit I lifted them out of the flight case Iike I normally do my LCD-4, and the LCD-5 almost flew off my hand

 

[MacedonianHero]

Personally I find LCD-5 quicker mostly because they can be direct driven out of my DAVE so they are able retain more of the speed and transparency.

When I got my first pre-production pair, by shear habit I lifted them out of the flight case Iike I normally do my LCD-4, and the LCD-5 almost flew of my hand

Very good point. I was very happy to see that my DAVE could drive them with ease. I felt I needed my HPA4 for the LCD-4s, but these are just great straight from the DAVE. Transparency so far is off the charts impressive!

 

[Dixter]

seems the headphone mfg have raised the price of admission... wont' be long and a HD800s will be $3K ..... ah the good old days when you could buy a electrostat for $500 are gone forever

 

[Undun]

OK...everyone thats an Engineer raise your hand.... not counting the Engineers driving the trains...

If software engineering counts: else:

 

[Audeze]

they removed half of the magnets and made the driver smaller, i assume it is very hard to do that and improve the sound quality

Weight reduction was done all over the headphone. The original design had leather covered headband and it added almost 75 grams. So we redesigned it with carbon fiber. The LCD5 still has 14 magnets. Even the grill, headband claps are made out of magnesium to keep the weight low. The driver active surface area on LCD5 is the same as LCD4. Overall enclose size is slightly smaller.

 

[Undun]

So please take this with a grain of salt as I've only put Rush's 2112 through these amazing headphones and they seem to hit the "sweet-spot" for me tonally speaking. The LCD-4 were on the warmer/enveloping side of things, but I preferred the treble response of the LCD-4Z for it's more energetic approach. But at times, that energetic approach (especially with Geddy Lee's vocals) could be a tad too much, so I preferred Rush with the LCD-4. The LCD-5 hit the target dead-on...his vocals are outstanding and near-perfect. Sound staging has been elevated over the already impressive LCD-4s too...both front-to-back and left-to-right. Neil Peart's drumming is super-quick...LCD-R/SR-009 quickness. Hard to say which is quicker with only an hour on them and I'll need more time but so far I am quite impressed.

For anyone thinking the previous LCD models were too heavy? Boy, oh boy will you be impressed with the 420g that these headphones come in at. One hour down and absolutely ZERO comfort issues. They seem to melt away on your head. They are smaller too and don't feel as big on my head:


This is gonna be one seriously fun review!!!!

any quick impressions on dynamics/slam on these vs the LCD-4?

 

[Audeze]

It's a 4500 USD headphone so I must buy a additionally 4 Pin XLR cable and cannot choice 4 Pin XLR instead of 6,35mm? Sorry I don't understand this.
When I buy a Stealth I can choice of dozens connectors why not when I buy from Audeze?

No. We found out that when we shipped LCD4s (and 3s) with balanced cable, over 95% of the users never used them. So we made it optional. Anyone who wants a balanced cable, just needs to contact sales and it is usually shipped with the headphone.

 

[phase0]

You guys are a tough crowd Sankar, myself and our CTO are all electrical engineers with Masters or Doctoral degree, but we need to wear different hats depending on the audience. If you have followed Audeze over the years, we do not wait for a series of technical innovations before a we release a new model. It is always a culmination of what we have learned and some more.

For example LCD-4 was about nano scale diaphragm, we already had the Fluxor magnets and Fazors. LCD-5 uses all the technology but also adds the Parallel Uniforce traces which we teased via LCD-R. Trying to explain the technology in a interview without a white board will feel like watching inception.

I for one would love to watch a white board session with a long form explanation.

 

[Dixter]

well the LCD5 looks like it should sound great.... how about $1500

 

[MacedonianHero]

any quick impressions on dynamics/slam on these vs the LCD-4?

Make no mistake about it, these are Audeze LCD headphones and they bring the bass...seriously good!

 

[ufospls2]

No. We found out that when we shipped LCD4s (and 3s) with balanced cable, over 95% of the users never used them. So we made it optional. Anyone who wants a balanced cable, just needs to contact sales and it is usually shipped with the headphone.

Great. Thank you for the info @Audeze .

 

[chargedcapacitor]

It is certainly not for lack of trying. Designing a magnetic, clip-on and other such mechanisms for the earpad is something we tried, it is not rocket science. We tried really hard, however, we were simply not happy with the seal and bass response compared to tried and tested methods we were already using.

Thanks for all of the responses, I love hearing about the details of the design decisions!

I have an engineering question, if you don't mind. Since the LCD-5 is going to be a single sided magnetic array, and the parallel uniforce traces allow for uniform force over the diaphram, what's stopping the headphones from just having the magnets on the outside-side of the diaphram, and ditching the ear-side fazors all together?

 

[number1sixerfan]

From my subjective experience spending a few weeks with the LCD-R and the susvara side by side, the LCD-5 only needs to slightly nudge the LCD-R out in sound quality to beat the susvara.

I also agree with this. The LCD-R is just a hair away technically from the TC/Susvara, although with the most euphoric midrange of the three.

This is my thoughts exactly. As someone who's spend tens of thousands on headgear I don't understand this race to all sound alike either. Isn't this market/hobby more like buying art? Can't I enjoy more than one style of art? If I like both jazz, classical and R&B can't I get 2 or 3 different products that all accentuate to this style and let me enjoy it more? Why do I need one "perfect" pair of headphones, or better, why is it the goal of every one of these companies to make a "perfect" set of headphones at the expense of focusing on their strengths and sound signature? If all we have in the end is "perfect" headphones with just different technical means of getting there, then this industry is going to consolidate and dry up its unique diversity pretty quickly. Isn't that actually sucking money out of the market?

As far as Audeze and the LCD-5, it may be phenomenal and true to its nature, I don't know and we all will have to listen to determine that. I do hope they do not completely "evolve" to sound "better" and in the process end up sounding just like my utopia or Stax because then I will end up owning less headphones and conversely spend less total $ in this industry.

I don't think its a bad thing to make the LCD-5 sound different than the LCD-4,3,2, etc... they still offer all those older options and they will most likely continue to revise them if there is continued demand for the Audeze house sound. Until people actually start receiving these units, or we begin seeing reviewers dive into the sound, I think we are jumping the gun.

Take the hd600/650 for example... they sound similar and were a progression in the sennheiser sound from one to the other. Then they released the hd800 which sounds nothing like the hd600/hd650. I didn't see many complaints that people thought the hd800 was a departure from their normal sound signature. And guess what... they still offer the hd600/hd650 along side their hd800 revisions.

I don't think it's a bad thing at all. Most companies have always had headphones with more than one typical signature. Sticking to just one signature (brighter vs. warmer for example) entirely just isn't smart business sense, as we know that not everyone hears the same or has the same preferences.

I will say that I can relate to the sentiment however. With the newest Stax release, I personally prefer that it has the house 009/typical stax signature (which many find brighter), but if you look in that thread there are plenty of people that have stayed away from Stax all these years because of this and prefer something closer to the tuning of the 007.. or a balance of the two. I don't blame companies at all for trying to reach both of these user groups--ppl like me that prefer the house sound, and new users/user segments that they want to attract to their brand.

 

[AudiophileJargon]

Feelin so goood knowing I will listen to more new gear this week at Canjam!

Hey, if the lcd5 is more transparent and natural sounding than lcd4. I am okay with that :]

 

[PeteSTRADAMUS]

I'm seriouslyyyy awaiting some impressions against the Elite. That's what I'm dying to know.